Portrait of Alexei Tolstoy: author, description

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Alexey Tolstoy is a world-renowned Russian writer, a descendant of an old noble family, a famous writer, poet and publicist.

The count was not only an excellent author of many literary works, but also had a pronounced aristocratic appearance, which inspired many artists to paint a portrait of Alexei Tolstoy.

Our article will tell you about the life path of a famous writer, his creative heritage. You will also learn about the portraits of Alexei Tolstoy, created by various artists both during the life of the author and posthumously.

Biography

Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy was born on August 24, 1817 in St. Petersburg. The future famous writer was born in the small village of Krasny Rog. It belonged to his father, Count Konstantin Tolstoy.

Alexey Tolstoy remained in Russian classical literature as a writer, poet, translator and playwright who created a little over 500 works in his life.

In addition to literary activity, Alexei Konstantinovich was an honoraryCorresponding Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

Childhood

The childhood of the future literary figure passed in a cozy family atmosphere. Alyosha's family had great we alth and great influence in the society of the nobility, and the young count did not need anything, devoting his leisure time to reading French literature and teaching various sciences. Alyosha's ability to learn, according to the assurances of the tutors, was excellent: the boy eagerly read works on philosophy, arithmetic, drawing, literary criticism and linguistics, also taking a great interest in chemistry and zoology.

Unfortunately, the family of Alexei Tolstoy broke up when he was still very young, and the boy was sent to be raised by his uncle, the famous writer Anton Pogorelsky, who dedicated his famous fairy tale “The Black Hen, or Underground Dwellers” to him.

Youth

From a young age, Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy was in the children's environment of the future Emperor Alexander II, with whom he spent leisure time, traveled abroad, and was also listed in the personal bodyguard of the sovereign.

1834 radically changed the life of the future writer, since this year he received a position as a trainee cadet in the archive department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire. Three years later, Alexei Konstantinovich was promoted, appointed deputy commander in the Russian mission at the German Sejm in Frankfurt am Main, and after another three years, the count retired and received the position of court master of ceremonies and the Jägermeister at the imperial court in St. Petersburg.

The beginning of literary activity

After retiring, Alexei Tolstoy decides to engage in active literary activity. In just two years, he is preparing for publication a collection of short stories, as well as a fantastic story "Ghoul". In 1841, both books were published under the pseudonym Krasnorogsky and gained some notoriety in literary circles. Critics noted the innovative ideas of the young writer, the special style of presentation, as well as the interesting philosophical component of the works.

Legendary critic and literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, after reading both books, noted that they have all the signs of a too young, but nevertheless a very remarkable talent.

Literary and social activities

In the next decade, Alexei Konstantinovich only strengthened his authority in the literary community of the Russian Empire. In 1860, he became the editor of the Sovremennik magazine, and also did proofreading of texts in the periodicals Russky Vestnik and Vestnik Evropy, while working on a collection of his own poems, published in 1867 under the writer's real name.

At this time, Tolstoy actively experiments with poetic forms, creating ballads and imitations of folk forms of poetry. From 1863 to 1870, he published a series of tragedies dedicated to the Russian imperial line: "Prince Silver", "The Death of Ivan the Terrible", "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" and "Tsar Boris".

In the literary portrait of Alexei Tolstoy by that time began to clearly appearshades of satire and humor. It is Alexei Konstantinovich who is known as one of the creators of the satirical image of Kozma Prutkov.

Shortly before his death, the writer undertook a major trip around Europe, the result of which was a collection of travel notes, published a year before the death of the writer, in 1874.

Death

In the late 1870s, Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy felt a sharp deterioration in his he alth and was forced to see a doctor. Despite the writer's frequent visits to the warm countries of Southern Europe, his he alth is not getting better, and the personal doctor prescribes morphine to the writer in order to relieve headache attacks.

September 28, 1875 Alexei Tolstoy experiences a sharp attack of severe headache and injects himself with another dose of morphine. While in a sick state, he miscalculates the dosage, and the dose he takes turns out to be too high.

On the night of September 29, at 12:45 pm, the writer dies in his bed from a heart attack caused by an overdose of morphine.

He won't be found until a few days later when the maid comes to clean up the house.

The writer was buried in his native village of Krasny Rog. At the village cemetery, a monument was erected to him with a single inscription: "Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875)". Every year, on the first Saturday of October, Poetry Day is celebrated in the Red Horn in memory of him.

Portraits of Alexei Tolstoy

Being a famous person, especially a representative of an old noble family, Alexei Konstantinovich more than oncebecame the object of interest of various artists, as well as relatives who were fond of painting. During the entire life of the count, various people created many portraits of the writer. A large number of sketches by the writer's lyceum and university colleagues, as well as portraits by eminent artists such as Repin and Bryullov, have survived to this day. Alexei Konstantinovich, according to contemporaries, was a figure interesting not only for a verbal, descriptive portrait, but also for an artistic portrait.

Possessing an outstanding aristocratic appearance, innate nobility and spiritual we alth of the soul, he attracted many creative people of that time, some of whom expressed a desire to paint his portrait.

The count was familiar with Shishkin, Aivazovsky, Bogolyubov, Tropinin and Kramskoy. Repin and Bryullov, two artists, each of whom at one time painted a portrait of the poet Alexei Tolstoy, the author of beautiful works, often came to the count’s house “for tea”.

Ilya Repin

Ilya Efimovich Repin, being a court painter, was a member of many famous houses of the Russian nobility. The Tolstoy house was no exception. The artist not only remained on friendly terms with Alexei Konstantinovich, but also illustrated some of his works, and also made sketches throughout the life of the writer, which later became the basis of the famous portrait.

It is with Repin that the writerhe repeatedly made joint trips around Russia, as well as many trips abroad, where two creative personalities not only created new works, but also discussed joint creative activities, and also analyzed various social phenomena. At the invitation of Alexei Tolstoy, Ilya Repin repeatedly acted as an artist in the Sovremennik and Rossiya magazines, and some of the writer's texts were used as descriptions for the famous artist's paintings.

The painting by Ilya Efimovich Repin "Portrait of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy" is now in the Tretyakov Gallery and is rightfully considered one of the pearls of Russian painting.

Karl Bryullov

Fate brought the young writer to Karl Pavlovich Bryullov in 1836, when the young writer was only 19 years old. The elderly artist was able to capture in his portrait the young Tolstoy, who had just graduated from university and spent the summer at his uncle's estate, indulging in a carefree vacation before starting public service.

"Portrait of Alexei Tolstoy in his youth" K. P. Bryullov painted in one go, without using pre-prepared sketches or test sketches.

Later, the artist admitted that the portrait of A. Tolstoy was one of his best works, fully reflecting the time of youth and high spiritual aspirations of a young man.

Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy even then could interest his older contemporaries with clarity of thought, purity of views and remarkableliterary talent, which attracted many famous people of that time to him.

The work of Karl Petrovich is in the State Hermitage Museum.

Literary heritage of the writer

In addition to a large number of wonderful works in the poetic and prose genres, Alexei Tolstoy left behind a great epistolary, satirical and journalistic legacy.

Shortly before the death of the writer, the famous artist V. Nechiporenko managed to paint a portrait of Alexei Tolstoy. The author did his work in the technique of a quick watercolor sketch.

During his life, he was actively involved in the creation of humoresques, sarcastic stories, as well as humorous feuilletons, most of which were published after his death.

The creative portrait of Alexei Tolstoy includes various prose and poetic sketches, and the writer also had the skills of an artist and composer.

The career of a journalist also greatly influenced the writer, becoming the basis for the creation of a large number of documentaries and essays on the culture, politics and history of Russia.

An interesting experience of translating the realities of Russian history onto a poetic basis was the work “The History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev”, written in 1868 in the genre of an epic tragedy and representing a huge (83 stanzas) poem. Unfortunately, due to the ideology of the constitutional monarchy prevailing in the country, the poem could not pass the censorship and was published only 15 years after the death of the writer, and even then in the formpartial publications in the journal "Russian Starina". The first full version of the work was published by B. Behr's Verlag in 1889.

Now you know who painted the writer during his lifetime. Descriptions of the portraits of Alexei Tolstoy are presented in the article.